O’Reilly: Apologize or shut up!

Fox New host Bill O’Reilly assumed full dimensions of self-importance last summer and condemned the Seattle P-I for choosing not to publish pictures circulated by the FBI of two “suspicious” ferry passengers.

The chief commentator at the “fair and balanced” network followed up by making the P-I chief villain of a November commentatary entitled: “Why is the far left putting the military and all Americans in danger?”

O’Reilly sent out an aspiring slayer of straw men, his producer Jesse Walters, to conduct an ambush interview with P-I publisher Roger Oglesby, outside the latter’s Seattle home.

“Are you proud of that decision, sir? I mean, they still haven’t found those guys,” Walters sneered at Oglesby. A few moments later, Walters said the two men were “still on the loose.”

On the loose? No crime was committed. No illegal act by the two men was ever alleged or attributed. No effort to sabotage Washington’s marine highway was ever found.

The two men were identified and photographed by a fellow passenger for a simple reason: They looked Middle Eastern.

Should a newspaper –in a free country, proud of its history as a melting pot – be stereotyping people as “suspicious” by the pigment of their skin?

Well, the story has a predictable end. The FBI disclosed Monday that the two men came in from the cold, as it were, by visiting a U.S. embassy recently. They were European business consultants on a Seattle trip.

“It appears they were in the area for legitimate reasons,” reported the FBI.

We are an international city. At least a quarter of Washington’s jobs depend on exporting goods to other countries. We naturally need to entertain buyers, even – and especially, say, in the case of Saudi Arabians buying jets – people whose skin looks like the two guys on the ferry.

O’Reilly ought to apologize, like right now.

He condemned the paper for refusing to stereotype and contribute to an atmosphere of suspicion.

It may be Fox News’ goal to whip up hysteria: It’s good for ratings. Our town, by contrast, is a “Hate Free Zone.”

Fox News also has a record of broadcasting stuff that turns out to be untrue, such as the claim that Sen. Barack Obama attended a madrass (Muslim religious) school as a boy in Indonesia. CNN actually visited the school, checked out the rumor, and verified that it was false.

Does Fox ever apologize for this stuff? In muffled undertones, with the madrassa story.

With the P-I, I would suggest that Bill O’Reilly present himself this week at Roger Oglesby’s door, and apologize for harassing him.

It’ll do him good to meet a civil, professional newsman. Perhaps Jesse Walters can tag along and learn some manners.

Of course, it’ll never happen.

O’Reilly is simply too conceited to eat crow, even when he claimed falsely to have received journalism awards.

With respect to the P-I, then, I would suggest two words of advice that the boorish Murdoch hitman has spoken to guests on his show: Shut up!